Story highlights

Ryder Cup starts on September 30

Team Europe going for fourth straight win

US once dominated the golf event

Tony Jacklin led European success

(CNN)When the US lifted the Ryder Cup for the 13th time in succession in 1983, few imagined how long the Americans would have to wait before their next success in golf's most prestigious team competition.

After all, the US was undefeated since 1959, beating Great Britain, Great Britain and Ireland -- and eventually Europe, when the event was revamped in 1979.

Nonetheless, the golf world was about to shift on its axis -- and that new balance of power remains in place 33 years later.

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Playing on the PGA Tour, he was used to going up against the likes of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino. He also saw the different ways the Ryder Cup players were treated by their ruling bodies.

"You're representing your team and country, and we were being sent out there by administrators who didn't know what it was like to hit a meaningful five-foot putt," Jacklin, now 72, says of the European approach.

"When you're up against an adversary like the Americans then you need all the armory you can get.

"We never had a team room, we used to huddle in the corner of the locker room -- 'You're going to play with him tomorrow, you're going to play with him' -- and then you were all free to go away at night with your partner to local restaurants in the town, and none of that was conducive to creating a team spirit.

"My feeling was that we needed to be together all the time -- we needed team unity. They needed to know I was part of that. I just wanted to make them feel as comfortable as possible so they could play their best.

"I never told them how to play, it was just mutual respect because they delivered in kind. As soon as they started being treated like first class citizens and professionals they would perform -- sometimes beyond the outer limits of their abilities."

New era

By the time the 1983 tournament came around, Jacklin had begun his revolution.

He was returning to the Ryder Cup after missing out for the first time since making his debut in 1967, but now he would be the non-playing captain.

Photos:Captain Clarke to lead Europe's Ryder Cup defense

Photos:Captain Clarke to lead Europe's Ryder Cup defense

Darren Clarke will be Europe's Ryder Cup captain for the 2016 battle against the United States. The Northern Irishman has a storied history in the competition, featuring five times as a player and twice as a vice captain. He has been on the losing side just once, in 1999.

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Photos:Captain Clarke to lead Europe's Ryder Cup defense

Clarke beat off competition from Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez (pictured) to become captain, with Denmark's Thomas Bjorn also under consideration by Europe's five-man selection panel that included former skippers Paul McGinley, Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie.

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Photos:Captain Clarke to lead Europe's Ryder Cup defense

Clarke's first Ryder Cup appearance came in 1997 when Europe defeated the United States by a score of 14½ to 13½ at Valderrama in Spain under the captaincy of the late, great Seve Ballesteros.

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Photos:Captain Clarke to lead Europe's Ryder Cup defense

Clarke has been involved in seven Ryder Cups as a player and a vice captain and has lost only once -- in 1999. The infamous "Battle of Brookline" was punctuated by moments of controversy as the U.S. stormed back from a deficit of 10-6 going into the singles to win 14½ to 13½.

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Photos:Captain Clarke to lead Europe's Ryder Cup defense

After a year's postponement due to the 9/11 tragedy in New York, Clarke was back on the winning side in 2002 when Europe regained the trophy thanks to a 15½ - 12½ victory at the Belfry near Birmingham.

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Photos:Captain Clarke to lead Europe's Ryder Cup defense

More success followed in 2004 when Europe trounced the U.S. team 18½ - 9½ at Oakland Hills. Clarke won 3½ points out of a possible five in the biggest winning margin since 1981.

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Photos:Captain Clarke to lead Europe's Ryder Cup defense

Clarke's last Ryder Cup appearance as a player was perhaps the most memorable. Playing just six weeks after his wife Heather had succumbed to cancer, Clarke was roared on by a vociferous home crowd at the K Club in Dublin, Ireland. An emotional Clarke won three out of three points as Europe repeated a huge victory margin of nine points.

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Photos:Captain Clarke to lead Europe's Ryder Cup defense

Clarke has also served a vice captain twice, in 2010 and 2012. He assisted Jose Maria Olazabal (R) during Europe's incredible comeback at Medinah in 2012, when it retained the trophy 14½ to 13½ having trailed 10-6 going into Sunday's singles.

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Photos:Captain Clarke to lead Europe's Ryder Cup defense

Clarke enjoyed the support of many high profile European players, world No. 1 and Rory McIlroy (pictured) part of a group that included Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Grame McDowell.

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The team flew to Florida on Concord -- it wore a uniform, took its own caddies and looked like a team rather than a collection of guys who had just happened to walk into a major international tournament.

Suddenly Europe's players began to overcome the inferiority complex that had hampered them in the past.

They may have lost at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, but the 14½-13½ scoreline was the closest since 1969.

"That's what the Ryder Cup was about. You're meant to feel very special -- you've made it, you've become part of an iconic team.

"He was the US Open and British Open winner and we didn't have many of them around in those days -- it was very special."

Having lost by nine points in England two years before -- when Jacklin was omitted and Seve Ballesteros dropped due to a pay dispute -- few gave Europe a chance of inflicting the Americans' first defeat since 1957.

But with Ballesteros back in the groove, the visitors went into the final day level at 8-8 and then it was 13-13 with just two matches remaining.

Seve Ballesteros was a key part of Europe's 1985 triumph.

Lanny Wadkins birdied his final hole to secured a half point against Jose-Maria Canizares, while Tom Watson sealed victory against Bernie Gallacher.

"That ended up being so disappointing," Jacklin recalls.

"We were so close to getting it done. It was by far and away the best performance we had ever had on American soil.

"That was the real beginning, not 1985. That was the beginning because we created a precedent there. Everybody was comfortable, everybody was happy and there was the nucleus of the team which was more or less the same in 1985.

"The confidence that we got from that finish in America helped us carry it off on home soil with the support of the crowd."

Fightback

By the time the US arrived at The Belfry two years later, Europe was a team transformed.

Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer and Sandy Lyle had won three of the five preceding major titles, and confidence was growing.

"I remember the first meeting we had in the team room in 1983 -- it was the first time we had ever got together and really talked," Jacklin says.

"I said, plain and simple, 'However big your ego is, we're all going to leave them outside on the hook -- they don't come into this room.'